Ammo
Ammunition piles (colloquially known as Ammo) are found in safe rooms and scattered elsewhere throughout the game. They are used to restock a player's reserve ammunition for primary weapons. Note that the Grenade Launcher and M60 cannot be resupplied from ammo piles and that all pistol types, the Minigun, and the Heavy Machine Gun have no need of them. Ammo comes in two types: A loose pile and a coffee-can-style bucket full. Both types are found in Left 4 Dead and'' Left 4 Dead 2''. Originally Left 4 Dead 2 only featured the loose pile. Their mechanics are identical during gameplay. Tactics * Ammo piles have stocks of all types of relevant ammunition. * All safe rooms (except the starting safe room of The Bridge in Left 4 Dead 2) have ammo piles. Players should use this to their advantage by: ** Ensuring they are carrying a full ammo loadout before leaving a safe room. ** Firing at enemies while in the safe room, then restocking on ammo before leaving. ** Returning to a nearby safe room for more ammo. * It is rarely a good decision to return to a distant safe room for more ammo as the Director will invariably spawn and interpose multiple hordes and Special Infected during the transits back to and subsequently from the safe room, all of which negates the purpose of the journey. Players running low on primary weapon ammo should instead switch to pistols or melee weapons and push forward to the next safe room. * In Crescendo Events, players should try to stock up on ammo before the crescendo begins, then restock their ammo as soon as possible after the event. * In finales, players should try to reach the ammo pile before the Tank arrives. * The location of an ammo pile should be factored into defense plans before triggering a finale. * Outside of safe rooms, ammo is usually found near the venues for Crescendo Events and at intervals on longer levels. * If a player is concerned about a looming Primary weapon ammo shortage, it is imperative to switch to pistols or a melee weapon in order to tackle low and moderate threat events. * Ammo Piles cannot refill ammunition for the Grenade Launcher or M60, so players equipped with these weapons should either preserve as much as the ammo as possible for Special Infected or hordes or (if running short of ammo) drop them for an alternative fully supplied Primary weapon. * Be aware: In Left 4 Dead, ammo piles and cans will restock the maximum possible in reserve and not account for partially filled magazines in a player's weapon. A player with a part-filled magazine has to remember to make a pickup, reload the magazine and then make another pickup to secure a full ammunition loadout. In Left 4 Dead 2, ammo restocking under this condition is simplified. Ammo piles will restock the maximum possible in reserve and temporarily add the amount a player is missing from a part-filled magazine if present to that player's reserves; meaning maximum ammo is obtained via only a single pickup. Using a Combat Shotgun as an example, it holds 10 shells and 90 in reserve. If a player has 1 shell loaded and 75 in reserve, the ammo pile will give 99 reserve shells thus topping off the shotgun even though it has not yet been reloaded. Ammo Management * The Pump Shotgun is arguably the easiest weapon to manage as it has only eight shells to keep track of and quick top-up reloads can done on the fly whilst ranged secondary weapons can be used to engage targets at medium to long ranges with no ammo reserve penalty. Players must bear in mind that this shotgun is devastating at close ranges and that its effectiveness degrades markedly beyond such distances―although distant targets can still be struck (and wounded) by two or three buckshot pellets. Overall, this weapon is a good choice for chapters characterized by plenty of short range targets at close quarters―such as The Apartments in Left 4 Dead. In Left 4 Dead 2, the Pump and Chrome Shotgun have severely reduced ammo reserve capacities and thus require more careful ammunition management and greater use of Pistol backup. * The Auto Shotgun (or Tactical Shotgun in Left 4 Dead 2) is a Tier 2 weapon and is therefore inherently more capable than the generic Tier 1 Pump Shotgun. Experienced users know to fire in a disciplined way at selected targets whilst keeping an eye on the ammo counter. Rapid magazine top-ups are essential to avoid the cooldown time-delay imposed if the weapon's magazine is emptied. For this reason, when hard-pressed and caught with an empty Auto Shotgun, it is often better to switch to Pistols and melee in order to continue the fight. This weapon's semi-automatic capability is best used when facing Tanks, Witches, and hordes. Holding down the fire key will fire this weapon in a sort of full-auto mode, though the weapon is still animated in semi-auto. This is actually slower than rapidly hitting the fire key. * The Hunting Rifle is the middle ground of all the weapons. The single shot, high power, and high reserve means that ammo is seldom a problem. However, the allure of rapid fire can trick many players. It only takes one shot from this weapon to kill Common Infected. Reload often, and fire slowly. Use the scope for distance and accuracy. If moving while firing, the accuracy of the Hunting Rifle is reduced. ** When The Sacrifice was released, the accuracy of the Hunting Rifle (previously with extremely reduced accuracy when moving) was balanced to match the Left 4 Dead 2 version. In the latter game, the Hunting Rifle has reduced reserve ammunition, but has had its decreased accuracy while moving reduced to more manageable levels compared to the original Hunting Rifle from Left 4 Dead for balance. The Sniper Rifle functions the same as the Hunting Rifle, though it has 30 shots in a single magazine (twice of Hunting Rifle's 15 shots), and 30 more shots in reserve. As a balance, it reloads slower. * The Submachine Gun has a high rate of fire and can very quickly deplete an undisciplined player's ammo reserve. If fired in short three- to five-round bursts at medium to long ranges and when crouched, this weapon performs very capably. (Indeed, a review of a player's statistics may reveal that this weapon is most accurate in terms of kills-per-shots-fired.) Long bursts should be used only against large hordes, big threats like a Tank (very easy to hit) or Witch and close encounters with the likes of Smokers and other Special Infected. When facing a Horde in a choke point such as a corridor or doorway, players should aim for their heads as this will drop them almost instantly. Random solo Common Infected can be taken down by the aforementioned short burst delivered to the central body area. As indicated earlier, it is essential that players keep constant stock of their ammo reserve and plan how best to use those rounds remaining once the count gets down to 50 percent or less. For example, switching to Dual Pistols and relying more on co-op team partners are good options for a sub-machine gunner anxious about the ammo situation. In Left 4 Dead 2, the Submachine Gun and Silenced Submachine Gun have roughly a 35% increase of reserve ammunition (480 backup rounds to 650). This naturally increases their effectiveness, though active fire discipline and firing short bursts remain of fundamental importance. * The Assault Rifle follows the same general rules as the Submachine Gun, except the reserve is 120 rounds smaller. Increased power means that bursts of 2-4 rounds should generally get the job done, though if trying to conserve ammo aim for the head. Check your reserves more often than you would with the Submachine Gun. Continue to save full auto for those big threats. Try to shoot Common Infected in the head for instant kills. In Left 4 Dead 2, the reserve ammunition remains unchanged, though the size of the magazine for the M-16 Assault Rifle, AK-47, and Combat Rifle vary in size, as well as firing rate, power, and accuracy, requiring a slight change of tactics for each gun. * The Grenade Launcher is somewhat easy to keep track of in the sense of how many rounds you have used and have left over, due to its one shot capacity. Reloading frequently makes most players check their ammunition, which makes keeping track of it easy. Though this weapon is the one with the lowest amount of shells (1 in the chamber and 30 in reserve) when found, so even with its slow rate of fire a Survivor can still burn through their ammunition quickly. When using this weapon, try to only fire shots at very large groups of Infected or when a horde is spawned by the Director. The shell will kill a very large number of Infected if used properly and if this weapon is used for only large groups or Special Infected, the user can potentially get through an entire campaign without running out of munitions for it. Be careful though when using the Grenade Launcher as it deals massive amounts of splash (explosive) damage to you and your team. This can be devastating on harder difficulties. It's ammunition can't be refilled without mods. * The M60 is similar in function to the Assault Rifle and its variants, but all of its reserve bullets (of which there are 150) is placed right into its magazine, disabling the need for reload. As the bullets of the M60 are extremely powerful, able to kill Common Infected in a single shot, care should be used for single shot, or short burst fire for Special Infected, while saving full auto for the Witch, Tank, and hordes. The M60 cannot be supplied with fresh ammunition without modding the game (or a modded server), so in order to conserve the magazine, making use of secondary weapons such as Pistols or a melee weapon is recommended, or if other Primary Weapons are nearby, they can be used until powerful enemies arrive, by then you should use the M60. Ammunition Upgrades Left 4 Dead 2 features two ammunition upgrades for all primary weapons. This powerful ammo spawns randomly, usually only found a handful of times in each campaign. When picked up it occupies the First aid kit slot. To use the ammo, the player first deploys it on the ground (which takes several seconds and leaves them vulnerable to attack), after which each player can use it once to get their share of the ammo. This gives them one extra magazine loaded with the special ammunition, except in the case of the M60 where all of its remaining ammo becomes Explosive(Frag)/Incendiary(Fire) ammo, after which the gun is then discarded. AI players will neither pick up nor deploy ammunition upgrades. Also, if either ammo upgrade is already in effect and the other is used, the second upgrade will replace the current upgrade. The ammo upgrades do not stack. Incendiary Ammunition Explosive Ammunition Behind the Scenes Originally in Left 4 Dead 2, there was an item called the Ammo Pack. They would be placed in the Med kits slot when picked up and used a re-skinned first aid kit model. Much like the current Incendiary and Explosive ammo packs, they could be deployed for use by teammates, with which they could resupply their ammo. This was cut because it went against the idea of players having to pick up new weapons when their current weapon was low on ammo and because play-testers would deem ammo packs less usable so long as ammo piles still existed. Its texture sheet can still be found in Left 4 Dead 2 materials files. Typing "give" in the console will show that one can type "give ammo_pack"; however, the game will not create one. The two ammo upgrades were originally designed to be static items that the Director placed in the world. However, testing showed that players were unwilling to move away from an area that had ammo upgrades, so they made it so that ammo upgrades could be picked up by players and placed anywhere, much like the previously described ammo pack. Achievements ''Left 4 Dead 2 Notes * The longer magazines that accompany the tin cans of ammo found in ''Left 4 Dead belong to a MP5 submachine gun, which doesn't appear in either of the games, except in the German version of Left 4 Dead 2, or through console commands. ** The shorter magazines that accompany the Tin Cans of Ammo found in Left 4 Dead belong to pistols, although pistols don't need to be resupplied. ** Despite the lack of any buckshot or other types of ammunition, all weapons (except the M60 and Grenade Launcher) will still have their ammunition reserves refilled by the bucket of ammo. * The Survivors in Left 4 Dead 2 (excluding Nick since an update after The Sacrifice) mistook ammo piles for "weapons" and "guns" instead of "ammo." Coach says to "remember where the ammo dumps are at" on first level of Hard Rain. This was the only time an ammo stockpile is called "ammo" properly in Left 4 Dead 2. ** This bug was known to be a Response Rule error. Valve was aware of this bug and finally, after 1523 days, fixed it. From January 18, 2013 the new Survivors now properly identify ammo as ammo. * The model for a deployed ammo pack is three open boxes of the ground model of the ammo pack. Upon closer examination it's easy to see that each of them contains a certain ammo type: there's one box with Buckshot ammo ("Buckshot" written on the side), one with assault rifle ammo ("Rifle 5.56mm" written on the side) and one box with small caliber pistol ammo (it contains smaller blue boxes of 9mm and .45acp rounds). There are some discrepancies here. First of all, while there's a small caliber ammo box (apparently intended for the two SMGs: 9mm for Uzi and .45ACP for MAC-10), pistols can't be loaded with explosive ammunition, even though they use the same ammo type as the SMGs. Secondly, there's only a 5.56mm ammo pack for assault rifles, which in real life would only work with M16A2 (Assault Rifle/M-16 Assault Rifle), SCAR (Desert Rifle) and Ruger Mini-14 (Hunting Rifle); there should be a few more: 7.62x51mm for G3 (Military Sniper Rifle), 7.62x39mm for AKM (AK-47), and 40mm grenades for the M79 Grenade Launcher. Additionally, it would also require .338 Lapua Magnum for the Arctic Warfare Super Magnum (AWP) in the German version of the game. *If you will fully unload any of shotguns and pick up any upgraded ammo before you will load first shell (you have to hold shotgun in your arms), you will receive 8 or 10 (depending on shotgun's type) upgraded shells, but you will still load 8 or 10 normal shells, resulting in shotgun loaded with 16 or 20 shells. This won't be seen on HUD, but after you shot with all upgraded ammo, you will see that you still have additional rounds loaded in weapon. * An animation on Left 4 Dead 2's files show ammo packs in a box-like shape and the Survivor emptying a box on to ground, giving the ammo pile shape. * Videos showing previous versions of Left 4 Dead 2 show that when a Survivor was picking up upgraded ammo, they had to reload his weapon to load special rounds into it. * If you are playing with bot Survivors and deploy Explosive Ammo, do not deploy Incendiary Ammo immediately after (and vice-versa). Bots will automatically pick up both ammo upgrades if they are on the ground simultaneously, even if they have not expended all of the upgraded ammo already in their weapon from the first ammo upgrade. This means that deploying both upgrades at the same time will cause the bots to waste one by picking up the other, overriding the upgraded ammo. * A player can still reload when their primary weapon is equipped with fire or explosive bullets. However, the only differences is when the player uses all their special ammo upgrades, they don't need to reload again, it depends how much special ammo is left when reloading. For example: if a player equipped with an Assault Rifle and it have only 1 fire/explosive round and is reloaded, there will be 49 normal bullets in the magazine (this will become visible after the last fire/explosive round is expended). * When cr0wning a Witch with an incendiary ammo loaded shotgun, the Witch will experience a glitch that startles her immediately (which will not happen with other types of ammunition). Unless the first shot kills her, she will relentlessly attack and none of the Survivor Bots will shoot her. * There is no incendiary shotgun shells in use in the U.S. military: therefore, the presence of incendiary buckshot ammo in the game is questionable. Dragon's Breath exists, but it is impractical for combat, nor was it used for combat anyway. Dragon's Breath shells also fail to cycle semi-automatic shotguns such as the Benelli M4 (Auto Shotgun/Tactical Shotgun) and the SPAS-12 (Combat Shotgun). * When modifying weapon scripts, increasing the magazine capacity beyond 256 will cause the magazine count to show wrong ammunition count, such as "-44" when the magazine capacity is put at "300", until the weapon has been fired to currently have 256 or below in its magazine. References See also * Reload * Weapons Category:Weapons Category:Game Mechanics